If we are going to get picky about a computer actually having to "compute",
how about 1890 when U.S. engineer Herman Hollerith, 30, pioneers punch-card
processing by adapting techniques employed in the Jacquard loom of 1801 and
the player piano of 1876 to devise a system for punching holes in sheets of
paper to record U.S. census statistics.

Then to show not much has changed, in 1912:
"Some 30 National Cash Register officers including J. H. Patterson and Thomas
J. Watson are indicted for criminal conspiracy in restraint of trade (see
1903). Patterson fires Watson, who will become general manager of the
Computer-Tabulating-Recording Co. (C-T-R), a holding company with a
subsidiary that employs Herman Hollerith and has acquired the Hollerith
punched card patents of 1890."

Will Dahlgren

 [ I don't supposed there's any relationship between IBM's Thomas J. Watson
 [ research center and the Thomas J. Watson referenced above, is there ?
 [ Jody